Monday, March 5, 2012

The Schwartz's vs Mr. Potato Head

So, I know I've put up a few pictures on here before of the various cake balls I've made for different get togethers we've gone to. I really enjoy making them. It's something that is so simple that even I can do it and for some reason people are always very impressed by them. I really enjoy making them because it's something that Chris and I do together. I bake the cakes and ball them up and then when it's time to dip and decorate Chris and I do it together. He always dips them, and then I sprinkle them before the candy coating or almond bark sets up. It's nice because we chat about whatever is going on, or about the event that we are taking them to. It's one of those things that with kids we don't really get to go out and do stuff together very often, so this is kind of a shared hobby that we both enjoy.

Generally, when decorating I just toss some sprinkles on the top, or drizzle some of the candy coating over it.

Then for the superbowl party I started to get a little more creative and we shaped them into ovals and I tried to pipe icing on to look like laces.

Super Bowl Cake balls

So after doing that, I was really proud of myself! I'm not very creative but I just thought my little football cake balls were adorable! And it got me thinking about maybe trying something a little more ambitious. So I thought I'd make some cake pops for my nephew's 1st real birthday party. (He's a leap day baby.) My SIL said the theme was Mr. Potato Head and after a quick google search I found the instructions here from the amazing Bakerella. And Chris and I went to work. Are you ready to see what we came up with?

Ta da! Oh my gosh I was so proud of these I was grinning from ear to ear! Aren't they amazing for a couple of amateurs?

So even though the Bakerella has a far better tutorial here's a quick run down of how we did it and a few pictures I snapped of the process.

Here's Chris candy coating the cake pops. You can see in the bottom right corner my work station. I had the stuff that had to be shoved on immediately laid out and ready to go for as soon as he put the pop in the block.

The little army after the first step of the process. Before the candy coating set each man needed his hat, arms, ears and nose put on. Then after the candy coating set up we had to go back on and attach the details.

Here's Chris showing me how to use the 2 toothpick trick to attach the little pieces like the eyes and the lips. The mustache an shoes were big enough that I could just hold on there with my fingers, but the eyes and lips were pretty tiny.

And here's the final result and finished product. Aren't they just adorable!

So here's the anatomy of our Potato Head since it's a little different from Bakerella's.

He's a devils food cake dipped in Peanut butter flavored candy coating. He has a junior mint hat, jumbo confetti sprinkle ears, lollipop stick arms, and peanut M&M feet. His eyes are candy buttons. His nose is a butterscotch morsel. His mustache is the end of a black licorice rope. His lip is a little red jimmie sprinkle. And his eyebrows are drawn on with an edible pen. And he was worth it!